Show COINAGE STILL LARGEST USE FOR SILVER SOCIETY SAYS washington Sl silver lver which ruled the money market tor for 2000 years until it was unseated during the last century by gold still Is used tor for coinage more than tor for any other purpose says a bulletin from washington headquarters of the national goo geo graphs society when abraham paid in silver for a grave tor for hla his wit wife a years ago one of the first payments Insl InsIl lver veT was recorded the early use of silver as money was waa in the form of ingols ingots I 1 seven hundred years before the christian I 1 era the lydiana struck oft off the thel first coin containing silver it was an alloy of gold and silver silver coins were mined in britain in BO 50 B n C the britons tiled filed 1 clipped and otherwise ted the coins and attempted to a exchange them at face value the practice pra was so general that henry I 1 promulgated a law whereby the lost a hand band as a penalty j silver succeeded copper as the dominant money metal about two centuries time the romans explored their domains for copper and flooded the market with the metal when the roman matron had to load a donkey with copper to buy food for a feast day leaders leadem of finance sought a scarcer metal thus began silvers 2000 year career in the money world the united states dollar got its name from the original silver dollar struck ot off in joachimsthal a bohemian cemian village in the sixteenth century the coin bore a likeness 0 of st the patron saint of the village the owner of the mine from which tho the silver was taken named the coin a the germans called the coin a thaler while the dutch abbreviation was daler 1 when the coins reached england the tha broad W a was discarded tor for an 10 0 o and another 1 I added to io make the coin a dollar columbus did not know that he had discovered the worlds greatest diver allver producing region less than 30 years he sighted land an expedition tion landed at vera cruz under the flie command of cortes and penetrated mexico it found natives lit literally brally burdened with articles of silver this was the first european contact with silver of the western hemisphere today the americas Amert cas produce more than 80 per cent of the worlds supply up of silver with mexican mines giving up about two fattlis of the worlds supply the mines oth atthe united states account for about 25 26 per cent although the sinking ot of the price of silver in recent years has the silver mining industry peru germany india and japan are the leading sources of silver in their I 1 respective continents utah Is the ranking silver elate ot of tho the united states colonial america used spanish pieces of eight as well as british stiver silver coins in the mint struck off the first united states silver colna coins hilt half dimes halt half dollars and dollars two years later the silver din and quarter ap pearel from 1873 to 1887 a trade siver dollar for use in crina was struck off ard and from to 1873 appeared pared ap a silver 3 cent piece orientals Orient als have developed a genuine genuina affection tor foro silver the metal la is so malleable that it easily can be I 1 worked b by ly artisans artl sana it ran can be beaten to a thinness of one one hundredth hun dreth thousandth of an inch until 1813 indians could exchange silver tor for TU rupees at the indian mint in prosperous years excess money of the peasants was used to purchase silver which they fashioned into jewelry tor for the feminine members of their families in lean years the silver objects were exchanges or rupees at the in mint int to keep the wolf from the door although the mint discontinued the exchange the indians affection tor for silver has not waned indian brides still are ashamed tofeile tofe to face ice the public without silver adornments the silver market in china and india booms when a cro crops ps are good and many ignarri marriages ag a s take place western mineral survey |